Halloween Fests!!!

My Halloween started on a sweet note with Krispy Kremes Halloween specials. The pumpkin ones at the store looked better than these ones- I didn't realize that one was crying until I got home. But they sure tasted great. And the "pumpkin spice" ones were good- but it didn't taste at all like "pumpkin" just "spice".
I had been working all week long on my dissertation and other research and so I got together with Dyan, Nicole, and Sarah and accompanied them to the downtown Los Altos trick-or-treating in the afternoon. We walked up and down the shops and some owners were outside dressed up handing out candy and others just left a bucket near the entry way.
My favorite was one restaurant had a special trick or treat for the parents- SAMPLES of their food. I had this delicious pumpkin soup and then some pita bread. It was a great marketing technique.

These mom's have trained their kids well- they don't even need to eat the candy, just put it in their mouths!

Later on that day was GOOGLEWEEN. It was "scaled back" from last year, but still fun to see everyone in their creative costumes. The most popular were Sarah Palin and the Joker, but we also saw a Joe Plumber. A few of our favorites were a G1 Android phone, nearly the whole Sesame Street crew
the pumpkin puppy
What about our costumes? William had a 1980s party the day before with his group at PSO and we truly came up with a "rockin" costume for him- RICK ASTLEY, otherwise known as RICKROLLED. The guy singing in the viral video shown all around the world this year going "Never gonna give you up". William looks just like the guy. So we dressed him up in one of the outfits from the video- he looked classic, and even pumped up the hair
However, his fellow co-workers really "didn't get it" until he explained it. So, on Friday, he didn't dress up in it again. But, we felt great vindication when we saw another co-worker wearing the same outfit. Sadly you can't see the "Never Gonna Give You Up" sign on his back so we know that was who he was dressed up as.
I was the ball and chain again- but this year, with these great socks that I really can only wear at Halloween
The funny story about my "costume" was that we were sitting outside and William introduced me to some of his co-workers as his "ball and chain". A few minutes later, one of these co-workers came back and asked me if I was in the same group as William at Google. I said that I am literally his wife, symbolic of the "ball and chain" :-) I guess maybe we should have worn matchy matchy outfits so that we would actually look like husband and wife :-)

This was our trick-or-treating for the night- and was definitely my favorite- GUMMIES!!!! And we also received a few Halloween knicknacks like a couple of rubber duckies and these squish toys that you make the eyes bulge out.
And, our Halloween fun continued that night (we did manage to get some work done in-between) as we went to Great America's HALLOWEEN HAUNT. They spooked up the amusement park- even placing cat eyes on the tower
and lots of smoky mist
Most of the fun rides were open, and they also had 5 haunted houses within the park. They had one called the "Slaughterhouse" that they managed to make the decor really scary and disgusting. I also liked the cornmaze one, but my favorite was that they turned the log ride into a spook alley and had people jumping out and scaring you while you rode around. I was definitely surprised/scared multiple times that night . . . and several by my own husband (a few people managed to make him jump too :-)

They also had some Halloween themed shows- like a hypnotist. William had NEVER seen one before so we had to watch a little of it. I know that some people truly can be hypnotized as I witnessed my friend Clint in high school, but I think that the majority of people just pretend that they are to be up on stage. That's how I felt this show was. William with his studious mind watched to see what exactly it was that the hypnotist did to have these people under his command. William thought that it is the bass line of the background music that was the acting force. I really have no idea and was quickly bored so we moved on. The other show was one done by Comedy Sportz, the group we had gone to seen a few months before. It was so funny and the best part is we received a coupon for $5 another showing!!! We'll definitely be going again.

The only sad part of the day is that the rides at Great America really don't agree with me. Last time we went, the ride "the demon" left me with one for nearly a week with severe neck pain. I refused to ride on it this year, but another ride called "vertigo" literally gave me vertigo by jarring my head around so much. My neck is still sore a few days afterwards, but no where nearly as bad as the demon. We had been thinking about maybe getting season passes to the park earlier this year and I think it was a wise move that we didn't.

Definitely a SPOOKTACULAR Halloween